Tony Ly’s mom told her son he just couldn’t be going to college all day long and doing nothing else but studying computer design.

“She said, ‘You know, son, we need some help. You have to work’,” said Ly of his mom, a Washington, D.C.-based nail technician.

“I told her, ‘Oh, mom. Really? A guy doing nails?”

But that was it for Ly. Once he started working and earning a paycheck, he never did return to computer design.

Tony Ly is an in-demand nail artist and educator. He will travel to the United Kingdom in August to ...more

Tony Ly is an in-demand nail artist and educator. He will travel to the United Kingdom in August to teach nail workshops, though you can find him most days at his nail salon, Tony's Nails, on Southwest Parkway.

Contributed: Tony Ly

“When you have a kid, don’t do that (steer them away from college),” said Ly with smile from under forest-green-tipped hair at Tony’s Nails, his nail salon on Southwest Parkway. It’s a business you would miss if you weren’t looking for it, sharing space as it does with an unassuming gas station, S&L Beer, Wine, Groceries.

But once you step inside, with the aroma of acrylic dappling the air, you find yourself in a calming nail spa escape, complete with luxury spa pedicure chairs, glossy wood floors, big-screen TVs and soft lighting.

Ly became a rock star in the nail world when, in 2015, a video he posted of his aquarium nails went viral — nails that, no joke, are actual miniature aquariums, filled with liquid and sequins (if he could fit a goldfish in there, he would). The video was picked up by a Vietnamese talk show and shared on its Facebook page. Then articles appeared featuring Ly's aquarium nail design on the "Today" show and BuzzFeed.

Now he touts more than a half a million followers on his Instagram account, travels many weekends to nail shows to teach nail workshops at such events as the International Beauty Show in Las Vegas and the Premiere Orlando International Beauty Event in Florida. He says a large percentage of his clients travel to Wichita Falls — home of oil barons and ranchers — from Oklahoma City, the Dallas area and even as far away as England to get their nails done.

Jordan Myers watches, and Tony Ly of Tony's Nails works on her nails. Myers travels from Tyler, ...more

Jordan Myers watches, and Tony Ly of Tony's Nails works on her nails. Myers travels from Tyler, Texas, to have Ly design her nails.

Torin Halsey/Times Record News

“It’s crazy,” he said of how far some of his clients travel to see him. “But they do.”

Ly started his nail career in Washington, D.C., where his family still lives, but moved here 11 years ago after meeting his wife online.

He started out doing hair before becoming a nail technician.

“My family, they all do nails in D.C.,” said Ly.

Tony Ly, a Wichita Falls-based nail artist, wanted to go into computer design but has made a name ...more

Tony Ly, a Wichita Falls-based nail artist, wanted to go into computer design but has made a name for himself, instead, as a nail artist. Ly touts more than a half million followers on Instagram, where he posts his designs.

Contributed: Tony Ly

Ly worked at other people’s salons before opening his own place and trying to build his business.

“It’s difficult when you live in a small town,” he said, but with children at home, a small town is where he wants to be for now.

Thank goodness for social media.

“The key to business now is social media,” he said. “ … It’s the key to connect with people.”

For him, it was easy to connect. All he had to do was show his work.

“We have 3,000 to 5,000 followers every day,” he said.

Not only did his wearable aquarium nails go viral, but his Instagram account shows all the wow-factor designs he can do: Nails with fidget spinners in them that you can actually spin, ones with gears that you can turn, a jewel-encrusted ladybug nail whose wings open up, and ones with “eyes” or other parts that light up.

Tony Ly became a rock star in the nail world a couple of years ago when a video he posted of an ...more

Tony Ly became a rock star in the nail world a couple of years ago when a video he posted of an aquarium nail he designed went viral. This is another popular design, the mermaid nail.

Contributed: Tony Ly

Ly said he first started upping his nail engineering skills about a decade ago. He had seen a design that he said looked kind of tacky: “I thought, I can do better than this.”

“I do a lot of weird stuff. … even a flashing light,” he said of his designs. “You have to special custom make them. … Everybody loves the ladybugs. I thought, ‘How do you make it cute and not scary?”

Ly engineers the moving ladybug wing nail so that anyone who looks at it doesn’t see the moving parts underneath.

He points out that his designs don’t always turn out: “I failed a couple of times.”

It takes several hours to complete one of the specialty nails — some three hours the first time he made one, though he has cut down on that time with experience.

A high-speed dental tool is used to shape and clean up the cuticle area of a customer's fingernails.

A high-speed dental tool is used to shape and clean up the cuticle area of a customer's fingernails.

Torin Halsey/Times Record News

Ly said right now what’s popular are stiletto nails — ones that are very pointy at the end, rather than rounded, though most of his clients prefer something simple, such as glittery nails.

“Glitter is popular for all seasons,” he said.

And mermaid nails are popular, too. Ly can create a multi-colored mermaid tail on one nail and the other half of the mermaid, its face and high hair-do, on a neighboring nail.

But if you look at Ly’s design aesthetic, rather than the moving ladybug nail or aquarium nail, he finds joy in infusing nails with as much bejeweled and bedazzled and glittery bling as possible.

Nails Magazine, which featured his nail design on the November 2016 cover, said of Ly, “When he’s not whipping up mini snow globes, Ly’s innovative designs lean toward stunning stilettos festooned with glitter and jewel clusters. At the same time, he often exhibits a very modernist sensibility, using contrast, negative space, and sleek long nail shapes that appeal to contemporary tastes.”

These stiletto nails get a bit of bedazzling from Tony Ly. The Wichita Falls-based nail artist ...more

These stiletto nails get a bit of bedazzling from Tony Ly. The Wichita Falls-based nail artist travels to teach nail art at such places as the International Beauty Show in Las Vegas.

Contributed: Tony Ly

It’s a Tuesday afternoon at Tony’s Nails and Ly, just back late last night from Las Vegas, was busy completing an acrylic nail fill for one of his regular clients, who travels to see him from Tyler, Texas.

It’s at his shop where you’ll see the beginnings of a nail dynasty of sorts. Ly designs his own drill bits and other tools to buff and polish and shape nails and touts his own collection of acrylic powder. He partners with Missu Beauty Network.

Despite his success — he’s headed to the United Kingdom in August to teach nail workshops — Ly said he always continues to learn, push the barriers and try new things when it comes to nails.

A client's sculpted acrylic nails are filed and shaped before a special liquid polish is applied.

A client's sculpted acrylic nails are filed and shaped before a special liquid polish is applied.

Torin Halsey/Times Record News

“Now I’m looking at magnet nails. … There are real gold nails, 24-karat,” he said, though his business offers the kind of nail services most salons do — $35 for a manicure, for example (however, expect to pay around $350 if you want, say, a fidget spinner design or ladybug design incorporated into your nails).

In the beauty business, there’s always something new on the horizon, and Ly is right there.

“I feel special,” he said of his success after so many years of hard work. “I feel my hard work has paid off, but I still keep going.”